Surface relief holograms have been made in the past by several methods. It is standard practice to record an original hologram in a relief medium such as photoresist or hardened gelatin. It is also standard practice to replicate surface relief holograms by preparing a durable master in the form of a nickel electroform as an embossing die for thermally embossing the original hologram into PVC or other thermoformable plastics. Solvent casting has been demonstrated wherein a clear plastic dissolved in a solvent is coated onto a master hologram and allowed to dry by evaporation, and the resulting dry layer of plastic is peeled off the master.
Hot-foil stamping is a well-established printing technique and a well-established method of transferring pre-printed images to a substrate. A holographic hot-stamping foil was demonstrated in 1982, without disclosure of its method of manufacture. The foil was used to transfer pre-made holographic images onto a plastic substrate.